| (a) Application deadline. For admission to a charter school, a charter holder shall: (1) require the applicant to complete and submit an application not later than a reasonable deadline the charter holder establishes; and (2) on receipt of more acceptable applications for admission under this section than available positions in the school: (A) except as permitted by subsection (b) of this section, fill the available positions by lottery; or (B) subject to subsection (c) of this section, fill the available positions in the order in which all timely applications were received. (b) Lottery exemption. The charter holder may exempt students from the lottery required by subsection (a) of this section to the extent this is consistent with the definition of a "public charter school" under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, P.L. 107-110, §5210 (NCLB), as interpreted by the United States Department of Education (USDE). (c) Newspaper publication. To the extent this is consistent with the definition of a "public charter school" under the NCLB, as interpreted by the USDE, a charter holder may fill applications for admission under subsection (a)(2)(B) of this section only if it published a notice of the opportunity to apply for admission to the charter school. A notice published under this subsection must: (1) state the application deadline; and (2) be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the community in which the school is located not later than the seventh day before the application deadline. (d) Student admission and enrollment. The governing body of the charter holder must adopt a student admission and enrollment policy that: (1) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex; national origin; ethnicity; religion; disability; academic, artistic, or athletic ability; or the district the child would otherwise attend under state law; and (2) specifies any type of non-discriminatory enrollment criteria to be used at each charter school operated by the charter holder. Such non-discriminatory enrollment criteria may make the student ineligible for enrollment based on a history of a criminal offense, a juvenile court adjudication, or discipline problems under Texas Education Code, Chapter 37, Subchapter A, documented as provided by local policy. (e) Maximum enrollment; transfers. Total enrollment shall not exceed the maximum number of students approved in the open-enrollment charter. Students who reside outside the geographic boundaries stated in the open-enrollment charter shall not be admitted to the charter school until all eligible applicants who reside within the boundaries and have submitted a timely application have been enrolled. Then, if the open-enrollment charter so provides, the charter holder may admit transfer students to the charter school in accordance with the terms of the open-enrollment charter. |
